From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Nov 9 17:55:41 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id RAA23061 for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 9 Nov 1997 17:55:41 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers) Received: from nighthawk.iti.gov.sg (nighthawk.iti.gov.sg [192.122.131.51]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id RAA23056 for ; Sun, 9 Nov 1997 17:55:36 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from joerg@iti.gov.sg) Received: (from mailer@localhost) by nighthawk.iti.gov.sg (8.6.11/8.6.11) id KAA07205; Mon, 10 Nov 1997 10:04:00 +0800 Received: from mailhub.iti.gov.sg(192.122.132.132) by nighthawk.iti.gov.sg via smap (V1.3) id sma007199; Mon Nov 10 10:03:39 1997 Received: (from joerg@localhost) by iti.gov.sg (8.8.5/8.8.5) id JAA03020; Mon, 10 Nov 1997 09:46:09 +0800 (SGT) Date: Mon, 10 Nov 1997 09:46:09 +0800 (SGT) From: Joerg Micheel Message-Id: <199711100146.JAA03020@iti.gov.sg> To: njs3@doc.ic.ac.uk Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: a.out format Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Niall, # Don't suppose anyone knows how the "a.out" format got its name? It means "assembler output file". Usually, linking object files involves multiple input files, so the linker doesn't know which name to assign to the executable. Per default, it's a.out. The a.out format got it's name afterwards to distinguish it from others. It used to be just "the object file format". Anyone else? Joerg